DENVER (KDVR) — Nearly 5,000 people have received a COVID-19 vaccine in Colorado and are classified as “out of state.”
FOX31 obtained new numbers from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) this week.
They show 4,775 people who are classified as “out of state” have received the vaccine in Colorado. That amounts to 1.2% of all who have received a vaccine in the state.
CDPHE said some are health care providers and others live near state lines.
“With regard to out-of-state, we are not seeing a demonstrable impact on that,” Gov. Jared Polis said Friday. “There are probably some Coloradans near the borders that go into other states and likewise.”
In other states, what’s called “vaccine tourism” has become an issue.
“Vaccine tourism is not permitted,” said Jared Moskowitz, Florida’s director of the Florida’s Division of Emergency Management. “It is abhorrent. People should not be flying here to get a vaccine and flying out.”
Florida officials said of the 1.1 million people vaccinated in the state so far, more than 43,000 are from out-of-state and out of the country.
Florida is now giving vaccines only to people who have full or part-time residency.
Meanwhile, CDPHE is releasing more information on the demographics of who’s getting a vaccine in Colorado.
So far, more than half the people who have received the vaccine in the state are women. Two-thirds are white, while just 6% are Black or Hispanic — two groups that make up about 26% of the state’s population. About 20 percent are of an unknown ethnicity.
“It’s clearly unacceptable to have this kind of disparity here in Colorado and that’s why we’re aggressively taking this on,” Polis said.
The state has a new commercial featuring people of color and is setting aside doses specifically for underserved populations.